Fellow & Director – Powering Livelihoods, CEEW

Abhishek Jain

Abhishek is a seasoned public policy professional and part of the senior leadership at The Council. He built and continues to guide The Council’s practices on energy access, sustainable livelihoods, and sustainable food systems. He also directs ‘Powering Livelihoods‘, a multi-million dollar initiative transforming India’s rural economy with clean energy solutions. In the past, he has led CEEW’s flagship research effort, ACCESS, the largest panel survey on multidimensional energy access in India. With more than twelve years of diverse experience, Abhishek’s work focuses on supporting the aspirations of marginalised communities through ecologically-compliant approaches — at scale. He works on a variety of issues spanning decentralised renewable energy, energy access, clean cooking, fossil fuel subsidies, power sector, rural livelihoods, sustainable agriculture, green economy, among others.

Abhishek has published in leading international journals, including Nature, and has written book chapters for Springer and other publishers. He regularly writes in leading national dailies, mentors social impact enterprises, speaks at international forums and advises senior government officials.

He is an Asia 21 Young Leader, a Chevening Fellow, and an alumnus of the University of Cambridge and IIT Roorkee. Before moving into public policy, Abhishek worked with Nestlé India to reduce its environmental footprint.

Senior Programme Lead, CEEW

Apoorve Khandelwal

Apoorve leads The Council’s Sustainable Food Systems program. He has invested almost a decade working on different sustainability challenges in the arena of bioeconomy (food, feed, fiber, and fuel), approaching them from different angles. While he has developed advanced biofuel & biomaterial technologies for a Fortune 500 and developed policy recommendations as part of satellite policy-research teams set up by Govt. of India, he has also led strategy consulting projects to advise agro-food organisations in Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia on a variety of sustainability issues. However, the consistent theme throughout this journey has been systems thinking, interdisciplinarity, and collaborative action.

He holds a bachelor’s and master’s in technology from IIT Delhi in the field of biochemical engineering & biotechnology and an MBA with distinction from INSEAD France.

Director ,WASSAN

National Coordinator, RRA Network

Dr. Sabyasachi Das

Dr. Sabyasachi Das is a Director at Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN) and the National Coordinator of Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture Network (RRA Network). As the head of RRA Network, Sabyasachi facilitates a large number of civil society organisations in 12 states in India to establish appropriate support systems to make rainfed agriculture resilient and remunerative. Sabyasachi engages with academic, research institutions and Government departments for appropriate public investment for rainfed agriculture.  Sabyasachi has over 20 years of field experience in agroecological principles and has expertise in promoting sustainable Pastoralism and Extensive Livestock Systems, characteristic of rainfed areas. He has a Ph. D in Dairy Extension, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana.

Regional Coordinator, RRA Network

Uday Kumar Mondal

Uday Kumar Mondal is a Regional Coordinator who heads the Odisha Rainfed Agriculture Mission, supported by FOLU, for RRA Network. He has over 12 years of experience in the development sector, specializing in rainfed agriculture, sustainable community development, and project management. He specialises in design thinking, community-centric planning and implementation. He has a Master’s degree in Social Work from Rabindra Bharati University, West Bengal.

Senior Fellow, Centre for Resource Efficiency & Governance, TERI

Dr Manish Anand

Dr Manish Anand, Senior Fellow, TERI, is an interdisciplinary policy researcher with more than 16 years of professional experience in science, sustainability and public policy grounded in interdisciplinary research, project coordination and management, outreach and capacity building. Earlier on he has worked as Research Associate at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He also led an interdisciplinary group at TERI, as an Area Convener, undertaking policy-centric research on science, technology and innovation and was a guest researcher at the German Development Institute, Bonn. He has worked in diverse areas of food, agriculture, land use, climate change, energy and environment, and emerging technology policy. Currently, his research and policy analysis work focuses on generating evidence, strategies and methodologies  based on systems thinking approaches towards sustainable food and land use systems including sustainable agricultural practices, natural resource use, rural livelihoods, human health and nutrition, and climate change. He has coordinated capacity building and training programmes on green innovations and social enterprise for sustainable development and delivered guest lectures on sustainable agricultural innovation systems. Besides publishing in peer-reviewed international journals he has also contributed in writing of policy briefs, newspaper articles and blog-posts and has two books (co-edited) to his credit.

Executive Program Director – Food, Land And Water, WRI India

Dr Ruchika Singh

Dr. Ruchika Singh is the Executive Program Director of Food, Land, and Water at WRI India, with more than two decades of experience working on environmental and developmental issues, providing leadership, and building programs.

At WRI India, she provides overall strategic direction on how to inform India’s transition towards sustainable food and land use systems with a focus on strengthening the food systems. The program focus is on three key pillars of work around Produce, Protect and Restore, and Reduce, which includes landscape restoration, food loss and waste, and sustainable agriculture. She also focuses on developing solutions with a crossing-cutting lens of people, nature, and climate with intersectionality and a focus on enhancing livelihoods. She is responsible for overall strategy development and integration with institutional goals, fundraising, developing partnerships, leadership, research, and program management at WRI India.

Before working with World Resources Institute and WRI India, Ruchika was an independent research consultant for the World Bank and led two studies on the Forest Rights Act in India. Ruchika began her career with the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), Dahod, where she worked with the local community on rights, livelihood, gender, and institution building for local self-governance and management of common land. After that, while at the Development and Research Service (DRS), New Delhi, she coordinated a ‘study to prepare a status report on the village industries in rural India.’ She has also worked with the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi. At TERI, she has had experience conducting evidence-based research as a team leader and/or member on institutional and governance issues related to various aspects of natural resource management and its governance, socio-economic assessment, monitoring and evaluation, and gender equity issues. Ruchika has taught courses on World Politics and Globalization, Governance, and World Order at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has also developed course modules on Gender and Water and institutional and governance issues at TERI University, New Delhi. She has worked in interdisciplinary environments with diverse actors -local communities, grassroots-level institutions, government departments, NGOs, bilateral and multilateral organizations, partner organizations, and funders at various levels.

Ruchika holds a PhD (magna cum laude) in Development Studies (with a focus on water governance) from the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn. She also holds a double Master’s in Politics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Master’s in Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague part of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Ruchika is an alumnus of Xavier Institute of Social Service and Delhi University. She is a recipient of the NUFFIC Fellowship award for Master in Development Studies at ISS, the Graduate Assistantship Award for Master in Political Science at UMass, Amherst, a DAAD Doctoral fellowship at ZEF, University of Bonn, and a Fieldwork research grant from Dr. Hermann Eiselen Ph.D. Grant from the Fiat Panis Foundation.

Ruchika likes traveling, taking photographs, and reading in her spare time.

Senior Program Associate – Sustainable Landscapes And Restoration, WRI India

Seema Yadav

Seema Yadav, Senior Program Associate at WRI India, is part of the Sustainable Landscapes and Restoration team.

With an academic background in environmental sciences, Seema’s doctoral work focused on exploring the ecology of non-timber forest product species in the natural forests of Central India. Prior to joining WRI India, she worked as a Research Associate at the Centre for Ecology Development and Research (CEDAR), assessing the performance of low-cost air-quality monitor sensors in Indian conditions.

Seema’s research interests revolve around forest ecology, including the dynamics of forest produce, the role of communities in natural resource conservation, and the impact of environmental legislation.

Seema loves listening to Bollywood melodies in her free time.

Program Manager – Food Loss and Waste, WRI India

Anar Bhatt

As the Program Manager – Food Loss and Waste at WRI India, Anar is currently
evaluating post-harvest losses in the soybean value chain in Madhya Pradesh and
Maharashtra. She researches causes and solutions to inform food loss reduction
policies and works to expand the Friends of Champions 12.3 India network,
uniting stakeholders for waste reduction to achieve SDG 12.3.

Anar has over a decade of experience in development sector research, focusing on
areas like climate change, social enterprise ecosystems, local economic
development, and food, agriculture, and nutrition innovation policies in India. Her
work history includes roles at Okapi Advisory, Intellecap, the Tata Institute of
Social Sciences, and IFMR.

Anar holds a PhD in Management from the Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad. She completed her MA in Economics from MS University of Baroda
and her BA in Economics from St Xavier’s College of Arts and Science
Ahmedabad. She was a 2014 Legislative and Governance Fellow for the US State
Department’s Professional Fellow’s Program, during which she studied the
ecosystem for entrepreneurs in Reno, Nevada.

Anar’s research interests span circular economic models, sustainable agriculture,
climate adaptation governance, and business ethics. She has published and
presented her work in internationally recognized journals and conferences.

Anar enjoys hiking in the mountains, practicing rejuvenating
yoga, savouring freshly brewed coffee, and creating art-like projects with her
toddler.